The Champion of Champions gets underway on Monday afternoon when four title hopefuls head to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry to compete in Group 4 of the competition, with the aim of booking a spot in the semi-final of the invitational tournament.
That means we will get to see the likes of Shaun Murphy and Neil Robertson in action while Martin Gould and Reanne Evans aiming to avoid merely making up the numbers on the opening day of the event.
Neil Robertson vs Martin Gould
The opening match of the tournament sees two competent acts going at it when the Welsh Open champion Neil Robertson goes up against the man used to playing short form snooker in Martin Gould, who came through the best-of-five frame Championship League.
Robertson is a warm order for this match but I’m not 100% certain that he is a good thing in it. I would imagine that Gould will see this as a free hit to take a major scalp. In saying that, Gould has dropped down outside the top 50 in the world so perhaps Robertson is a good thing after all. Nothing really stands out to be either way here so I’ll sit this one out.
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Shaun Murphy vs Reanne Evans
The second group semi-final on Monday looks a bit of a mismatch on paper as the China Championship winner Shaun Murphy goes up against the Women’s world champion Reanne Evans for a place in the group final.
This is all about Murphy in my eyes. I’m not being critical of Evans but I don’t see her scoring heavily enough to trouble someone in the sort of form that Murphy is in. She might have competed with someone struggling for form but Murphy is in a fine groove right now and as long as he is ruthless he will get the chances to win this match and win it 4-0.
Group Betting
Although Martin Gould shouldn’t be completely ruled out here, I do expect the group final to be between Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy which should offer up a classic conclusion to the opening day of action. The market sees it that way too with Murphy even money to come through the section and Robertson 11/10.
The pair are no strangers to meeting each other having battled it out on 34 previous occasions. Murphy won their most recent battle in the International Championship which should give him some confidence. I’m not convinced Robertson is at the top of his game and given that it isn’t completely certain he’ll get past Gould I’ll take Murphy to come through this group.
Tips
Back S.Murphy to win beat R.Evans 4-0 for a 5/10 stake at 1.91 with 888sport
Back him here:
Back S.Murphy to win Group 4 for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Betway
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